Press.



J. REIFSCHNEIDER.

PRESS. APPLICATION FILED 5111.17, 1913.

1,071,179. Patented Aug.26, 1913.

UNITED STATES PATEN T OFFICE.

JOHN REIFSCHNEIDER, OF BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO EDMUND TWENI-IOEFEL, OF BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS.

PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 26, 1913.

To all whom/2'15 may concern Be it known that I, J 0111s RnIFsoHNnmnR, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Belleville, in the county of St. Clair and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to presses.

It has for its principal objects to produce a press of simple construction and particu larly adapted for compressing and creasing folded insurance policies, legal and other documents, letters and the like; to provide for the adjustment of the press to suit different thicknesses of work, and to attain certain advantages which will hereinafter more fully appear.

The invention consists in the parts and in the arrangements and combinations of parts.

hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing which forms part of this specification and wherein like symbols refer to like parts wherever they occur, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a press illustrating an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a side elevation; and Fig. 3 is a section taken on or about the line 33 of Fig. 1, the movable head being with drawn from the fixed abutment.

The press shown in the drawing comprises an abutment plate 1 from whose ends side frames or brackets 2 project. The inner face of the abutment plate is flat, but its outer face is preferably ribbed along its margins, as at 3, and across its middle, as at 4, so as to stiffen it. The side frames are preferably flanged along their lower edges, as at 5, and said flanges are perforated, as at 6, to receive screws for fastening the press to a table or other suitable support. The bottom rib on the abutment plate 1 may also be provided with holes 7 to receive additional securing screws.

On the inner faces of the side frames 2, near the bottom edges thereof, are horizontal. grooves or slideways 8 which may be provided by arranging parallel ledges or flanges 9 as shown. These slideways are adapted to receive lugs or studs lOprojecting from the ends of a movable head or compression plate 11 near the lower corners thereof. This movable head, like the fixed abutment plate 1, is fiat 011 its inner side and ribbed 011 the other side, as at 12, 18.

The movable head 11 is provided with pairs of cars or lugs 14 on its outer face near its ends and about midway between its side margins. These lugs 11 are pivoted to the end portions of links 15 whose opposite ends are pivoted to lever arms or cars 16 which are fixed on a rock shaft 17. The rock shaft is preferably journaled at its ends in blocks 18 which are slidably mounted on said. side frames 2. In order to hold the blocks 18 from moving laterally they are preferably provided at top and bottom with ribs 19 which slide in grooves provided therefor in the side frames 2. Adjustable stops or screws 20 are provided at the ends of said side frames, so as to receive the end thrust of the blocks outward and for changing the positions of blocks with respect to the fixed abutment plate 1 and movable head or plate 11 to vary the leverage of the press.

The rock shaft 17 is provided with handle arms 21 near its ends. These are prefer ably projected diametrically opposite to said lever arms or cars 16, as shown, and they are connected at their outer ends to a cross bar or handle 22. To prevent the handle arms from swinging too far down when the movable head 11 is moved toward the abutment 1, the blocks 18 are provided with lugs 23 arranged to be engaged by lugs 2 1 on the rock shaft.

In operating the press, the leverage is ad justed to suit a desired thickness of material or work to be compressed or creased. That is, for a desired thickness of work, for example, a document, letter or the like whose number of folds or thicknesses have been determined, the bearing blocks are adjusted with respect to the fixed abutment 1 and movable head 11; the adjustment being accomplished by turning the screws 20 in or out as the case may be. It is desirable to make the adjustment so that, in the final positions of the parts, the links 15 and lever arms 16 will assume a nearly horizontal position. In other words, so that all of the pivotal axes of said links 15 and rock shaft 17 will be nearly in the same horizontal plane, the pivotal axis between the links 15 and lever arms 16 being in the lower plane or below the pivotal axis between said links 15 and ear 141 and also the axis of the rock shaft 17.

WVhen the handle is raised, as shown in Fig. 3, the movable head 11 is drawn away from the abutment plate 1 and it will normally assume a tilted position approXimating that shown. However, owing to the link connection between said movable head 11 and said lever arms 16, and the slidable engagement of the lugs or studs 10 in the grooves or slideways 8 on the inner faces of the side frames 2, said movable head may be readily set in vertical position by the hand of the person operating the press when placing the papers therein. But in any event said head will right itself as it is forced against the work, owing to this compensating arrangement; and in order that the bottom edge of the movable head will remain in a plane close to the surface of the table or other support on which the press is mounted, both in the upright and tilted positions of the head, said bottom edge is preferably beveled as shown, and the lugs 10 are made polygonal in cross section and have their under sides beveled to correspond to the beveled edge of the head.

Obviously, the press admits of considerable modification without departing from the invention. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the specific construction and arrangement shown.

Vhat I claim is:

1. A press comprising an abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to said abutment plate, a rock shaft journaled on said side frames, a movable compression head slidably and pivotally mounted on said side frames, a lGVeI' arm on said rock shaft, and a link pivoted at its ends respectively to said lever arm and to said movable compression head.

2. A press comprising an abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to said abutment plate, bearing blocks slidably mounted in said side frames, a rock shaft journaled on said bearing blocks, a movable compression head slidably and pivotally mounted on said side frames, a lever arm on said rock shaft, and a link pivoted at its ends respectively to said lever arm and to said movable compression head.

3. A press comprising an abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to said abutment plate, bearing blocks slidably mounted in said side frames, means for setting said bearing blocks at different distances from said abutment plate, a rock shaft j ournaled on said bearing blocks, a movable compression head slidably and pivotally mounted on said side frames, a lever arm on said rock shaft, and a link pivoted at its ends respectively to said lever arm and to said movable compression head.

4:. A press comprising an abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to said abutment plate, said side frames having slideways on their inner faces extending in a plane perpendicular to said abutment plate, a movable compression plate having projections at its ends pivotally and slidably fitted in the respective slideways, a rock shaft journaled on said side frames, a lever arm on said rock shaft, a link pivotally connected at its ends respectively to said lever arm and to said movable compression plate, and a handle lever on said rock shaft.

5. A press comprising a vertically disposed abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to the opposite ends of said abutmentplate, said side frames having hori- Zontal slideways on their inner faces near their lower edges, a movable compression plate having projections at its ends near the lower corners thereof, said projections being pivotally and slidably fitted in the respective slideways, a rock shaft journaled at its opposite ends on said side frames, lever arms on said rock shaft adjacent to said side frames, and links pivoted at one end to said lever arms and at their opposite ends to said movable compression plate.

6. A press comprising a vertically disposed abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to the opposite ends of said abutment plate, said side frames having horizontal slideways on their inner faces near their lower edges, a movable compression plate having projections at its ends near the lower corners thereof, said projections being pivotally and slidably fitted in the respective slideways, said side frames also having additional horizontal slideways therein, bearing blocks slidably mounted in said second mentioned slideways, a rock shaft journaled at its ends in said bearing blocks, lever arms on said rock shaft, links pivotally connected at one end to said lever arms and at their opposite ends to said movable compression plate, a handle lever on said rock shaft, and means for adjusting said bearing blocks to positions at different distances from said abutment plate.

7. A press comprising a vertically disposed abutment plate, parallel side frames connected to the ends of said abutment plate, said side frames having spaced pairs of horizontal ledges on their inner faces constituting slideways, a movable compression plate having lugs extending from its opposite ends near the lower corners thereof, said studs being respectively slidably and pivotally fitted in said slideways on the side frames, said movable compression plate also having laterally projecting ears on its outer face near its ends and approximately midway between its side margins, said side frames also having additional horizontal slideways which are grooved at top and bottom, bearing blocks mounted in said second mentioned slideways on the side frames and having ribs slidably fitted in said grooves of the slideways, a rock-shaft jour- Signed at Belleville, Illinois, this 8th day naled at its ends in said bearin blocks, leof January, 1913.

ver arms on said rock-shaft, lln s pivotally connected at one end to said lever arms and JOHN REIFSCHNEIDER' 5 at their opposite ends to said ears on said lVitnesses:

movable compression plate, and a handle HERMAN F. FERNAU,

lever on said rock-shaft. ERWIN H. FERNAU.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. 6. 

